IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v95y2021ics0140988320304102.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do households respond to Time-Of-Use tariffs? Evidence from Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Burns, Kelly
  • Mountain, Bruce

Abstract

We estimate the elasticity of substitution for households on Time-Of-Use (TOU) tariffs using a sample of 6957 electricity bills from households in Victoria, Australia. Across the full sample we find the difference between peak and off-peak prices has little influence on the difference between peak and off-peak consumption and is not affected by access to rooftop photovoltaics. Households in the lowest socio-economic areas do not respond to differences in peak and off-peak prices. Our findings of the elasticity of substitution are remarkably similar to previous studies of TOU tariffs in the United States of America in the 1980s. This suggests retail market deregulation, the installation of smart meters, consumers' access to their consumption data and enduring policy support for TOU tariffs has not been rewarded with any measurable improvement in consumers' responsiveness to time-varying prices. While freedom to select TOU tariffs is valuable, these findings do not support the imposition of TOU tariffs as a default pricing policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Burns, Kelly & Mountain, Bruce, 2021. "Do households respond to Time-Of-Use tariffs? Evidence from Australia," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:95:y:2021:i:c:s0140988320304102
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2020.105070
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988320304102
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2020.105070?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bartusch, Cajsa & Alvehag, Karin, 2014. "Further exploring the potential of residential demand response programs in electricity distribution," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 39-59.
    2. Frederiks, Elisha R. & Stenner, Karen & Hobman, Elizabeth V., 2015. "Household energy use: Applying behavioural economics to understand consumer decision-making and behaviour," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1385-1394.
    3. Douglas W. Caves & Joseph A. Herriges & Kathleen A. Kuester, 1989. "Load Shifting Under Voluntary Residential Time-of-Use Rates," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), pages 83-99.
    4. Bruno S. Frey & Reto Jegen, 2001. "Motivation Crowding Theory," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(5), pages 589-611, December.
    5. Douglas W. Caves and Laurits R. Christensen, 1980. "Residential Substitution of Off-peak for Peak Electricity Usage under Time-of-Use Pricing," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    6. Ericson, Torgeir, 2011. "Households' self-selection of dynamic electricity tariffs," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(7), pages 2541-2547, July.
    7. Caves, Douglas W. & Christensen, Laurits R. & Herriges, Joseph A., 1984. "Consistency of residential customer response in time-of-use electricity pricing experiments," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1-2), pages 179-203.
    8. Parks, Richard W. & Weitzel, David, 1984. "Measuring the consumer welfare effects of time-differentiated electricity prices," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1-2), pages 35-64.
    9. Caves, Douglas W. & Christensen, Laurits R., 1980. "Econometric analysis of residential time-of-use electricity pricing experiments," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 287-306, December.
    10. Nicolson, Moira L. & Fell, Michael J. & Huebner, Gesche M., 2018. "Consumer demand for time of use electricity tariffs: A systematized review of the empirical evidence," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 276-289.
    11. Douglas W. Caves & Laurits R. Christensen & Joseph A. Herriges, 1987. "The Neoclassical Model of Consumer Demand with Identically Priced Commodities: An Application to Time-of-Use Electricity Pricing," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 18(4), pages 564-580, Winter.
    12. Caves, Douglas W. & Christensen, L. R. & Herriges, Joseph A., 1987. "Neoclassical Model of Consumer Demand with Identically Priced Commodities; And An Application to Time of Use Electricity Pricing," Staff General Research Papers Archive 10793, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    13. Faruqui, Ahmad & George, Stephen, 2005. "Quantifying Customer Response to Dynamic Pricing," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 53-63, May.
    14. Gyamfi, Samuel & Krumdieck, Susan & Urmee, Tania, 2013. "Residential peak electricity demand response—Highlights of some behavioural issues," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 71-77.
    15. Schneider, Ian & Sunstein, Cass R., 2017. "Behavioral considerations for effective time-varying electricity prices," Behavioural Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(2), pages 219-251, November.
    16. Ahmad Faruqui & Sanem Sergici, 2010. "Household response to dynamic pricing of electricity: a survey of 15 experiments," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 193-225, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Quentin Raillard-Cazanove & Edward Barbour, 2022. "Analysis of Smart Meter Electricity Consumption Data for PV Storage in the UK," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-15, May.
    2. Kim, Kyungah & Choi, Jihye & Lee, Jihee & Lee, Jongsu & Kim, Junghun, 2023. "Public preferences and increasing acceptance of time-varying electricity pricing for demand side management in South Korea," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    3. Hari Agung Yuniarto & Nur Mayke Eka Normasari & Sella Friscilla Silalahi & Irene Clarisa Gunawan & Deendarlianto & Indra Ardhanayudha Aditya & Arionmaro Asi Simaremare & Fajar Nurrohman Haryadi, 2024. "Customer behaviour towards energy usage with time of use tariff: a systematic literature review," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(1), pages 44-61, February.
    4. Hampton, Harrison & Foley, Aoife M. & Del Rio, Dylan Furszyfer & Sovacool, Benjamin, 2022. "Developing future retail electricity markets with a customer-centric focus," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Woo, C.K. & Sreedharan, P. & Hargreaves, J. & Kahrl, F. & Wang, J. & Horowitz, I., 2014. "A review of electricity product differentiation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 262-272.
    2. Herter, Karen & Wayland, Seth, 2010. "Residential response to critical-peak pricing of electricity: California evidence," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 1561-1567.
    3. Woo, C.K. & Liu, Y. & Zarnikau, J. & Shiu, A. & Luo, X. & Kahrl, F., 2018. "Price elasticities of retail energy demands in the United States: New evidence from a panel of monthly data for 2001–2016," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 460-474.
    4. Woo, C.K. & Li, R. & Shiu, A. & Horowitz, I., 2013. "Residential winter kWh responsiveness under optional time-varying pricing in British Columbia," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 288-297.
    5. Mountain, Dean C. & Lawson, Evelyn L., 1995. "Some initial evidence of Canadian responsiveness to time-of-use electricity rates: Detailed daily and monthly analysis," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 189-212, August.
    6. Mostafa Baladi, S. & Herriges, Joseph A. & Sweeney, Thomas J., 1998. "Residential response to voluntary time-of-use electricity rates," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 225-244, September.
    7. Woo, C.K. & Shiu, A. & Liu, Y. & Luo, X. & Zarnikau, J., 2018. "Consumption effects of an electricity decarbonization policy: Hong Kong," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 887-902.
    8. Farhad Daruwala & Frank T. Denton & Dean C. Mountain, 2017. "One Size May Not Fit All: Welfare Benefits And Cost Reductions With Differentiated Household Electricity Rates In A General Equilibrium Model," Department of Economics Working Papers 2017-03, McMaster University.
    9. Hobman, Elizabeth V. & Frederiks, Elisha R. & Stenner, Karen & Meikle, Sarah, 2016. "Uptake and usage of cost-reflective electricity pricing: Insights from psychology and behavioural economics," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 455-467.
    10. Cappers, Peter A. & Todd-Blick, Annika, 2021. "Heterogeneity in own-price residential customer demand elasticities for electricity under time-of-use rates: Evidence from a randomized-control trial in the United States," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    11. Daruwala, Farhad & Denton, Frank T. & Mountain, Dean C., 2020. "One size may not fit all: Welfare benefits and cost reductions with optional differentiated household electricity rates," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    12. Kapeller, Rudolf & Cohen, Jed J. & Kollmann, Andrea & Reichl, Johannes, 2023. "Incentivizing residential electricity consumers to increase demand during periods of high local solar generation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).
    13. Faruqui, Ahmad & Sergici, Sanem & Lessem, Neil & Mountain, Dean, 2015. "Impact measurement of tariff changes when experimentation is not an option—A case study of Ontario, Canada," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(PA), pages 39-48.
    14. Michael K. Price, 2014. "Using field experiments to address environmental externalities and resource scarcity: major lessons learned and new directions for future research," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 30(4), pages 621-638.
    15. He, Yongxiu & Wang, Bing & Wang, Jianhui & Xiong, Wei & Xia, Tian, 2012. "Residential demand response behavior analysis based on Monte Carlo simulation: The case of Yinchuan in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 230-236.
    16. Sloot, Daniel & Scheibehenne, Benjamin, 2022. "Understanding the financial incentive conundrum: A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of financial incentive interventions in promoting energy conservation behavior," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    17. Robert W. Hahn & Robert D. Metcalfe, 2021. "Efficiency and Equity Impacts of Energy Subsidies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(5), pages 1658-1688, May.
    18. Srivastava, Aman & Van Passel, Steven & Kessels, Roselinde & Valkering, Pieter & Laes, Erik, 2020. "Reducing winter peaks in electricity consumption: A choice experiment to structure demand response programs," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    19. Simona Bigerna and Carlo Andrea Bollino, 2015. "A System Of Hourly Demand in the Italian Electricity Market," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    20. Guo, Peiyang & Lam, Jacqueline C.K. & Li, Victor O.K., 2019. "Drivers of domestic electricity users’ price responsiveness: A novel machine learning approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C), pages 900-913.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Time-Of-Use; Load shifting; Elasticity of substitution; Electricity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D40 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - General
    • D04 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Policy: Formulation; Implementation; Evaluation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:95:y:2021:i:c:s0140988320304102. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.